Pinball
by Maige
Summary: Sometimes the silence in the pinball rooms are maddening. They can just make you go insane. Oneshot


Disclaimer: I don't own Gaia online

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I trudged silently to the pinball room, my autumn glory scarf flowing out behind me, leaving a trail of golden leaves on the floor. I clutched my tattered, old elephant doll in my hand as I walked. It swung back and forth, the weak stitches at the arms threatening to come undone. A constant gaggle of toadstools lay around my feet, yet they followed wherever I went. I was heading to the pinball room for I was short on money. I had no house, no car, nowhere to go except riding along the train to get to the town, or the few various activities to do. I frowned down at my new Wingding shirt with my button eyes, furrowing my eyebrows. The shirt cost me the most- nearly 40 000 gold. Now I have not even half that amount of money.

I sighed almost silently to myself, before pushing open one a heavy door with a small grunt. _Anime Cafe 2 _was engraved deeply into the door. As I walked into the room, I noticed that I was the last person to enter this room. There were nine people there, and I was the tenth. A large pinball machine stood in front of me, ready for me to put my information on it so it would give me the correct amount of balls, floaties, sticky balls, and so forth. My button-like eyes couldn't help but peer over at the other people, to inspect them. Most of them were newbies, like usual. Few of the other occupants had some rare items, such as Gimpi or Inari's Beads. I frowned in jealousy at them. I've never got a good amount of gold to buy something like the Gimpi.

There was something that unnerved me, though.

Unnerved me to the bone.

Everyone in the room stared blankly at their pinball machines, numbly pressing the control buttons. Their eyes seemed to have sunken in their head, glassy and dead-like. And none of these people here had the Oculus eyes. They took no notice of anyone around them; anything happening around them. None of them even took the time to quickly glance up as I walked into the room.

I hated the silence. It could cut through you as easily as a hot knife through butter.

It seemed more nowadays that nobody ever talked while playing pinball. Or fishing, or making jigsaw puzzles for that matter. Nobody even talked in ZOMG, despite it was like towns. People just went on their way, shrugging off everything around them. I frowned tightly, chewing on my bottom lip, but I stopped when I felt a coppery taste started on my taste buds.

"Hey everyone," I greeted to the other pinball players, waving my hand slightly and offering a small smile.

Nothing. They continued on staring at the screens, pressing the buttons at the right time. I then noticed few people just stared at the screen, and that was it. Except for the small taps of fingers pushing buttons, it was eerily silent. But I couldn't help keep my eyes off the people who stood still. They seemed to never blink. A shiver creeped up my spine, making me shudder slightly. They reminded me of the figures that model in the Evolving Items museum. Except these people were breathing.

_'At least, I think they're breathing_,' I thought solemly, causing another shiver to fly up my back. I went to my pinball machine and flicked the 'on' switch upwards. The machine came into life instantly, lights flashing and music playing. I frowned and muted the music, like everyone else in the room had. Before I could put my information into the machine, someone left. They walked to the door, bear feet padding across the floor. At this close I could clearly tell the person was female. Her eyes still held that glassy, dead, blank look. She reached out slowly to the door and pushed it open. As she walked out, another Gaian came in. I immediately recognized her by her wingding shirt, and the skull mood bubble that constantly followed her.

"Tobi!" I called to the black-haired girl. I called her Tobi because the character she plays whenever we role-play. I smiled brightly and waved to her, waiting for her to make some random comment, like she usually does.

My role-play partner simply walked past me, and took the place of the girl that left. Her eyes bared the same dead look as everyone else. She reached forward to the machine and started playing. I frowned. Tobi never played pinball. Whenever she came to the same pinball room I'm in, we just usually talked.

"Um, Tobi, are you OK?" a small, frightened voice asked. I raised my hand to my mouth as I realized I had made that small voice. Why was I feeling so spooked? I shook my head and looked back at the pinball machine, which was ready for me to play.

I pressed the button to send the ball flying into the machine. Hopefully I'll get around two million points by the time I've done. I have been doing better lately.

The lights flashed across my face as I rapidly tapped the buttons, trying to hit the grunnies five times. I had to get all the letters...slots, vote, trades...have to get enough gold to get a armadillo ball...my mind is slipping...

I blinked and stepped back from the machine, not bothering to pause it. My ball fell down the "OMG' chute. I uttered a small cry, fearful of what just happened there, in my mind. I had only felt like that once before, years ago when I was in the hospital. The feeling of having your mind coming off the hinges, just as easily as I could rip the arm off my elephant doll. I looked down at the ragged plush, which I had dropped a while ago. It lay on the floor, as silent as everyone else.

"Just calm down," I muttered to myself. "Next time I'll try to find a chatty room." My hands went back to work on the buttons. I wasn't doing too good today. I was running out of floaties, and I kept loosing the ball. That's when I felt it again. My mind slipping away, like when you're between sleep and consciousness. It took all my strength to wrench my eyes away from the pinball screen. My hands fell back to my side. I reached down and picked up the elephant doll, cradling the tiny plush in my arms.

"I'm just going to leave," I murmured softly. No one looked over at me. I didn't care. I nearly ran to the door, free hand stretched out to push it open. Someone grabbed me from behind. I screamed in surprise, dropping my plushie once again. I turned and saw one of the people who were in the room. He had huge, spiky orange hair and gigantic sunglasses that covered most of his face. I tried to pull away. His gloved hand tightened on my shoulder.

"L-Let go," I demanded, trying to make myself sound brave, although it came out no more than a whisper. The man grinned at me. I looked above his wild hair. "Unrisenone" floated above the bright orange mass.

All of the other people in the pinball room craned their heads to look at me with dead eyes, including Tobi. Panic flooded through my mind. I could feel my stomach flip-flopping out of fear. My cat ears flattened against my silver hair. Unrisenone came towards me.

I screamed, letting it ring out through the room.

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MeLikeNapoleon11, otherwise known as Catherine, walked with a bounce in her step to the pinball rooms. It had been a while since she was in Gaia. It had also been a while since she'd seen her friend, Deidara_art_bang. She was especially happy today, since she saved up enough gold to buy a Pink Sweet heart Teddy to her. Catherine smiled, thinking about how proud her friend would be to know she bought it all on her own. She was heading to the pinball rooms, since she knew her friend loved to play pinball. Catherine pushed open one of the doors of the pinball rooms, knowing that Deidara would be in there.

And indeed she was.

"Hey! Michaela!" Catherine called over, waving her hands around, her kappa and piggie plushies waving around.

Her friend turned to Catherine. Stared at her with dead, glassy eyes. And grinned.

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Um...woo? ^^;


End file.
